MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

4/10 Cubs lineup

Mike Olt will start against right-hander Gerritt Cole on Thursday in the series finale between the Cubs and Pirates at Wrigley Field. Travis Wood gets the start, and needs to do better against left-handed hitters. In his first start against the Phillies, lefties were 5-for-17 against him, while right-handers were 1-for-9. Here’s the lineup:

no I meant POSER…. you pose yourself as this great knowledgable guy… but you just repost stuff over and over… trying to set some record for the most posts….. so NO I didn’t misspell anything……. nice try at a cheap shot though… keep it up!

Aloha CubsTalk- Interesting seeing these different lineups and I guess this will be a way of life for a while. I have often wondered about moving players around, for example Bonifacio to second today from being in the outfield yesterday. And what it does to Castro in trying to get comfortable with his colleague(s) next door, chemistry and making plays together. This platooning could also make a team more versatile. I hope Wood can settle in early and find his rhythm, the defense play well and the hits keep a coming. Mahalo!

Remember how the Reds, Dodgers and Phillies had set lineups in the 70’s ?…..always the same guys in the same order night after night……..only three Cubs are set lineup players, Rizzo, Castro, Castillo……the rest are bench players…..sure Bonifacio is hitting the ball around, but the League will adjust to him…..

I think we should all wonder where Baez will play at once he comes to the Majors…..Castro is so set in at shortstop, would the Cubs FO really want to move Castro to a new position?……if Baez plays third, is Olt on the trade market?…..or will Baez play LF?…..which I believe Baez will end up someday…………Baez physical makeup is too large for a shortstop……or a second baseman………

This lineup should be set by 2016 with Bryant, Almora, Baez all here playing.

its already been said where Baez will play…. 2B…. he played that a few times this spring and Theo and Baez himself said the switch to 2B isn’t a huge deal. Baez should play average defense at least there with a pretty nice range factor.

also we as Cubs fans as a whole have to realize that the possibility for ALL our guys to pan out is VERY LOW! Even our big 4 is going to have some busts. By saying the lineup is set for 2016 is defintely setting the club up for disappointment. We don’t even know if Baez is going to make it at the big league level. Baseball development takes times and anything can happen. This is not the NBA or NFL or your xbox… this is the most difficult game to play in the world and if you fail even 70% of the time you are going to be a Hall of Famer….

Aloha CubsTalk- I was quite young there in “da 70’s” but I do remember as I began to pay more attention to the teams, their lineups and yes like you said those teams were set. Baez is a wild-card as to where he will end up once he comes. And yes, there are those what-ifs, what if Olt has a great turn around and stays healthy? He is an asset to the team I would think but anything can happen with the FO. I guess this back and forth will happen for a while, I just hope the team can grow in its chemistry so as to weather these frequent changes. Today should be a good “rubber game!” Mahalo. PS: I do hope Castillo can stay healthy have thought about possible trades that could strengthen our Cubbies at the catching position as well.

It’s pretty easy to have a set lineup with the same guys in the same order when all of your starters are all-stars with a few future Hall of Famers sprinkled in. The Reds, Dodgers, and Phillies teams of the 70s had that. The 2014 Cubs, not so much.
The good…. yet another post where Cubs Talk proves to the world that he knows nothing of baseball.
The bad… Cubs Talk will probably make another attempt at humor at my expense and fail miserably because not only is he baseball ignorant, but he’s also a terrible comedian.
The ugly… I’m actually wasting precious seconds responding to this dummy, and in responding to this dummy I’ll probably get some sort of nonsense response back and then I’ll probably waste precious more seconds responding to that nonsense.

All good points on the teams of the 70’s you mention Doug. Who would you platoon with a Perez, Morgan, Concepcion, Rose, Foster, Griffey and Bench.
Also great points on the good bad and ugly.
Joeydafish was pretty idiotic and no improvement as CubsTalk.

Cubs Talk, poser is one of petreydish`s favorite words. I know that as he attributed it to myself the first week of April 2013. Is what created enmity between us originally. Consider yourself in good company, Cubs Talk, and I shall feel comradeship with anyone in the future whom he, with his limited vocabulary, labels that way. Go Cubs tonight vs. Redbirds!

i think he has every right to be upset. Its still early we have played 8 games. Things will start to work themselves out. Ruggiano may show he really does suck and Kalish may not be able to make it back to form…. Shierholtz maybe a flash in the pan and come back to reality. Lake just needs to keep producing and he will play more and more. Its the same with Olt. Stay healthy and productive and you will play everyday. Look at Bonifacio!! He was looked at a possible platoon but you can’t sit the guy who is hitting 500 and continues to be a great leadoff hitter. If he was hitting 100 and not getting on base LAKE or Kalish would be our CFer

He can`t spell bargain correctly either. Are we seeing a pattern here? When are players going to learn it is imprudent to dive into first base rather than staying upright? {See Hamilton of Angels.} He`ll miss six weeks, is it? Has been proved one reaches first base sooner by staying upright.

I am starting to want to see Josh Vitters up here to play LF/RF. He has about 600 ABs in AAA with a slash line of 304/361/521… thats pretty solid, somewhat impressive actually… only 17ish% K rate… 7%ish BB rate…. thats a pretty productive player right there. Now Vitters will come up and struggle NO DOUBT!! But that is exactly what he does. He struggles and then starts to figure things out. Maybe an OF of Vitters/Lake/ Shierholtz with Kalish as the backup… stick bonifacio at 2B… or maybe someone gets hurt here in the next month or to give Vitters that shot. IDK but Vitters is turning out some impressive numbers and I expect to see him up here pretty soon. If Shark does actually get traded maybe you throw Barney or one of the OFers in to sweeten the pot.

Are the Cubs becoming like the Cubs of 2007….or the Pirates going back to the terrible Pirates we saw for 20 years?………….I like to wait and see when the Cubs play against other MLB teams besides the ones in Pennsylvania.

I’m not saying that I don’t want you here. I’m saying that your posts are incredibly annoying and mostly pointless, and you’re the one crying when people point that out. You are free to post whatever you want to post (as long as it doesn’t violate the site’s guidelines, but that’s not my problem) but please stop whining when people point out how nonsensical most of your posts are.

Hi Kenly Cub – I’ll bet you have a great life with that 12 yr. old daughter of yours! :)) And I loved your story of watching the game with her! Building memories! She may not remember who won or who lost years from now but she will remember watching the Cubs with her dad! Priceless! After reading these recent posts I am just chuckling at the immaturity and childishness displayed by supposed adults! They seem to prefer to insult each other back and forth rather than discuss baseball! Kind of a joke when the rest of us aren’t allowed to mention family or anything other than “stats”and “bats”. I hope you will please continue to tell us how your daughter is enjoying the games with you? I will be watching for updates! :))

Aloha Kenly and White- I did too, I think my heart is heavy when I see some of this back and forth, I am sure others who read some of these threads must be shaking their heads but I hope most are laughing. Since I have gone into this season as a fan with no expectations except to support our Cubbies, I have really enjoyed the season thus far. Sure I have had some of the same reactions late in the games as with all Cubs fans, wishing we had a bullpen that could better hold leads and/or keep us close. Last nights game was a tough one you think they are going to win and closeout this home-stand .500. But such is life, if anything the FO knows what they need to get if things do not turn around soon. I have actually thought about the idea as the Giants did for a while with Lincecum if we were to keep Jeff S. longer, could he move to the bullpen like a Dempster did? I not sure if he would be up for it as he is doing good in a starting role but for the long term if he stays? One of the trades I did not like was getting rid of Sean Marshall and you know the Reds have been quite happy with him. I thought he was a great setup man. Anyhow, just rambling hope the team starts off this road trip well tonight! Mahalo & Aloha Friday!

Aloha k.g.and White.Aloha,that sounds very comforting.Thanks for the shoutouts,my daughter thinks her daddy is so cool,which in this day and time is,well weird!Back to the comment board,some of this stuff should not be here,but am enjoying the humor of some of it.The bullpen was to a certain extent a bright spot this year.Cannot understand if it is the correct usage of the personnel or what.Time will tell,scoring some runs,very strong starting pitching,if the bullpen could pan outit could make for a interesting first half.

Aloha Kenly, your daughter is blessed to not only have you as a father but to “bring” her up as a Cubs fan! Even though my father was the main ball player in our family and a collegiate coach, it was my grandfather originally from Chicago that took me to my first major league game when I was 11/12yrs old and it was to Wrigley! I also had a friend whose grandmother for years owned one of the buildings across from the park and I am sure that family is not thinking they should have never sold! Anyhow, tonight’s game is a different lineup in St. Louis, Olt is not in. I am not sure if it is to give his shoulder a rest or not, which is not a bad thing. But I hope he gets stronger and can play more often if it works out. Take care now. Mahalo!

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